SHELBY, MI -- A devastating fire on June 11 tore the heart out of downtown Shelby.

A summer 2012 fire may have robbed Patricia Brown of her Shelby-based Pizza Factory, but it couldn't steal her sunny outlook on life.Jonathan Stoner | MLive.com

The Pizza Factory was one of four businesses destroyed in the massive overnight blaze that leveled the downtown area around Fourth Street and Michigan Avenue.

Pizza Factory owner Patricia Brown didn’t waste any time starting over. Seven months after the devastating fire, the Pizza Factory is reopening in its new location across the street and a few doors down from the original location.

“We’ve been in business for 25 years,” she said. “We found out since the fire that a lot of people have missed us.”

The Pizza Factory is a Shelby staple and many in the local community were pushing Brown to start over because they were missing their favorite eatery.

“Yes, (there was) a lot of pressure,” said Brown. “A lot of people saying, 'Oh, you gotta rebuild, you gotta rebuild.' I just decided I was too young to retire. So I wanted to open again.”

She had her eyes on an empty building across the street from the fire scene that was formerly a plumbing and heating supply store.

“We got this about the end of June, the beginning of July,” Brown said. “Yeah, we started right away. We were hoping it wouldn’t take quite so long. You know things, they have to go in steps – these steps can take a lot of time.”

According to her son-in-law, Scott Stovall of Stovall Construction, they didn’t start construction until mid-September and it took several months to get the necessary permits and engineer drawings approved for the project.

“There was a lot of red tape to get through to convert a plumbing and heating supply store into a restaurant,” said Stovall, who served as Brown’s contractor for the project.

The Pizza Factory in downtown Shelby is reopening on Jan. 8, 2013, nearly seven months to the day when it was destroyed in a massive fire that leveled three other businesses.Jonathan Stoner | MLive.com

With the help of her son-in-law and many skilled laborers, Brown completely remodeled her new building. The project included cutting out concrete floors, putting in all new plumbing, installing three compartment sinks for the kitchen, stringing all new electrical service and installing new rooftop and heating and air conditioning units.

“It took a lot of effort. It took a lot of money -- and a lot of labor,” said Stovall.

In a small town like Shelby, losing one of the main restaurants created a noticeable void. So for Stovall and Brown, the hard work and personal investment to get the place up and running again has been worth it.

According to Stovall, there’s no other place in town where residents can go for a lunch buffet. For 25 years, the Pizza Factory was where people in Shelby would go to eat out at lunch and they will be able to again this week.

“We have a bigger building now and we have more room so we can accommodate more people,” said Brown. “We hope we are gonna be bigger and better.”

While Brown maintains that all of her recipes will be the same, one thing that will be different this time around will be an open bar and full menu. She said The Other End sports bar that also was consumed in the summertime fire won't be rebuilding, so she's trying to fill the void.

“We are in the process of trying to get the liquor license,” said Brown. “That would be new. Since the bar isn’t rebuilding we thought we’d go try to add the alcohol here.”

This has been a year of setbacks for the 60-year old Brown. But instead of giving up she has embraced this new season of life and is getting back to work doing what she loves.

“You know, she was just about ready to retire and now she’s starting over,” said Stovall. “I think a big lesson learned is not to take life for granted because it can change on you overnight."